A 

BONE  TO  GNAW 

FOR 

GRANT  THORBURN, 

BEING 

AN  EXAMINATION  OF  THE 
LIFE  OF  THIS  CELEBRATED  CHARACTER 

AND  ALSO 
REMARKS  ON  HIS  LATE  PUBLICATION 

OF 

"MEN  4*  MANNERS  IN  BRITAIN" 

BY 

WILLIAM  CARVER, 

V 

VETERINARY  SURGEON. 


NEW- YORK,— 1836. 


PREFACE, 

BY  A  FRIEND. 

Mr.  Grant  Thorburn,  the  subject  of  the  following  ad- 
dress, though  very  limited  in  his  education  and  acquire- 
ments, possesses  a  great  share  of  cunning  and  worldly 
wisdom.  He  and  Mr.  Carver  came  from  England  to 
country  in  the  same  year,  1794,  and  as  their  political 
sentiments  were  congenial,  a  close  intimacy  and  friend- 
ship was  formed  ;  but  in  the  end,  their  characters  proved 
to  be  adverse  in  the  extreme. 

Carver  was  frank,  open  and  candid,  and  express3d  his 
opinions,  at  all  times,  without  the  least  reserve  ;  perhaps 
with  too  much  freedom.  Thorburn,  on  the  contrary, 
fell  in  with  the  ruling  prejudices  of  the  day;  and  per- 
ceiving the  estimation  in  which  religion  was  held  in  this 
country,  he  became  of  a  sudden  extravagantly  devout. 
It  is  said  by  foreigners,  that  religion  is  of  vastly  greater 
value  to  its  possessers  in  America  than  in  Europe.  Here 
this  little  man  discovered  his  cunning  and  address  :  he 
joined  the  Scotch  church  in  Cedar  street,  which  is 
supposed  to  possess  more  of  the  pure  genuine  Calvinistic 
doctrine  than  any  other  church  in  the  city.  Here  his 
fervent  zeal  was  soon  noticed,  and  he  was  promoted  to 
the  office  of  plate  bearer,  which  is  considered  next  in  dig- 
nity to  that  of  deacon.  He  at  the  same  time  sent  one  of 
his  sons  to  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  who  actually 
became  a  deacon  of  that  old  and  respectable  establish- 
ment. By  the  way,  the  reformation  of  this  church  is 
from  Lutheranism  to  Calvinism,  which  is  esteemed  by 
some  as  a  sinking  deeper  into  the  mire  of  superstition* 


M342O11 


iv. 

Thorburn  sent  another  son  to  the  Baptist  church  in 
Nassau  street,  where  he  is  said  to  have  been  dipped. 
One  of  the  young  men  kept  a  grocery  store,  and  no 
doubt  found  his  account  in  professing  religion. 

Thorburn,  having  established  the  piety  of  himself  and 
family,  and  having  met  with  success  in  his  business,  to 
render  himself  more  conspicuous,  particularly  as  a  de- 
fender of  the  faith,  turned  author  ;  or  rather  as  his  friend 
Carver  says,  procured  another  person  to  write  for  him. 

In  these  writings  he  contrasts  his  worldly  condition 
with  that  of  his  friend  William;  meaning  William  Car- 
ver, who  had  been  less  successful, and  in  fact  had  become 
poor.  This  Thorburn  attributes  to  their  different  re- 
ligious faith,  and  takes  occasion  to  reprobate  in  the 
most  severe  terms  Thomas  Paine  and  all  of  his  way  of 
thinking.  Mr  Carver  had  always  expressed  his  honest 
opinions  without  the  least  hypocrisy,  he  could  not  bear 
to  be  taunted  by  this  parasite,  whose  honesty,  at  any 
rate,  in  regard  to  his  religious  professions,  may  well  be 
doubted,  as  will  appear  by  the  following  pamphlet  by 
his  friend  William. 


A 

BONE  TO  KNAW, 

FOR 


1  have  read  the  life  of  Grant  Thorburn,  and  likewise 
his  Journal,  on  sea  and  land,  also  his  account  of  men 
and  manners  in  Britain :  in  the  latter  work  the  public 
are  presented  with  what  he  calls  "A  Bone  to  Gnaw." 
This  last  work  and  the  former,  are  said  to  be  written  by 
himself.  I  will  now  present  my  friend  and  old  shop- 
mate  Grant,  with  a  Bone  to  Gnaw,  which  I  presume  he 
will  find  hard  and  tough  enough.  In  the  first  place  I 
can  prove  that  he  never  wrote  either  of  the  works,  and 
that  a  great  part  of  what  is  contained  in  these  works  is 
not  true  :  proof  of  which  will  be  found  in  the  following 
pages.  Grant  has  again  brought  me  before  the  public, 
in  the  daily  papers,  contrary  to  agreement  after  we  had 
settled  a  former  dispute.  He  therefore  must  pardon  me 
for  making  the  second  reply.  I  wish  Grant  to  produce 
one  witness  to  prove  the  long  conversation  that  he  says 
took  place  between  himself  and  Thomas  Paine  at  my 
house  ;  I  do  not  recollect  seeing  Grant  but  once  at  my 
house,  during  the  time  Mr  Paine  was  there,  neither  do  I 
believe  that  ho  said  what  is  printed  ta  his  life  i  if  he  hart 


6 

done  so,  Mr.  Paine  would  have  contradicted  him  :  I  be- 
lieve Mr.  Paine  never  was  in  Scotland,  or  Ireland  ;  th« 
only  countries  that  he  had  been  in, were  England,  Ame- 
rica, &  France.  Had  he  thus  advocated  his  Tory  prin- 
ciples, Paine  would  soon  have  refuted  them.  Grant 
knew  very  little  of  Mr  Paine's  treatment  during  his  re- 
sidence in  France,  or  h.s  imprisonment.  The  prisoners 
were  never  permitted  to  leave  their  cells,  to  commune 
with  each  other.  Paine  and  three  others  were  confined 
in  one  cell ;  it  is  true  the  door  was  marked  outside  when 
open,  when  shut  the  mark  was  hid;  had  not  this  been 
the  case  they  all  four  would  have  been  guillotined  in  the 
morning.* 

Mr.  Paine  attributed  his  escape  more  to  the  Provi- 
dence of  God,  then  to  the  prayers  of  the  priests;  Grant 
should  have  been  better  informed  before  he  had  publish- 
ed any  thing  about  the  affair,  then  he  might  have  told 
truth  :  but  he  goes  on  and  says  that  the  husband  of 
Madam  JBoneville,  was  executed  in  the  place  of  Paine 
which  is,  a  down  right  falsehood  :  Mr.Boneville  came  to 
this  country  after  his  wife  and  children,  they  all  return- 
ed home  to  France.  Mr  Boneville  had  been  a  Republi- 
can printer,but  whenBoneparte  established  his  authority 
he  stopped  Mr.Boneville's  press.  The  only  reason  that 

*Mr.  Paine  escaped  the  guillotine  when  in  France  by  the  ac- 
cident referred  to;  the  executioners  generally  took  their  victims 
in  the  night,  and  were  merely  guarded  by  marks  on  the  or.ter 
door  of  the  cell.  When  it  is  considered  that  Paine  had  writ- 
ten, but  not  then  published  his  First  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason, 
and  that  he  afterwards  wrote  his  Second  part,  his  Essay  on. 
Dreams,  the  Examination  of  passages  in  the  New  Testament, 
quoted  from  the  Old  as  prophecies,  and  other  pieces  which  still 
remain  unsatisfactorily  replied  to ;  when  all  this  is  considered, 
his  remarkable  escape  is  the  strongest  instance  of  a  particular 
Providence  on  record, 


Paine  left  France  was  that  Bonaparte  set  up  king  craft ; 
Paine  and  Bonaparte  were  on  good  teims  before  that; 
they  had  together  planed  a  new  system  of  Gun  Boats; 
they  were  to  have  two  guns  instead  of  one  ;  one  was  to 
be  pushed  forward  as  soon  as  the  other  had  fired.     Grant 
Thorburn  ought  to  reverence  the  name  of  Thomas  Paine ; 
had  not  his  writings  been    practically  enforced  in  this 
country,  the  Providence  that  he  so  much  talks  of,  would 
never  have  given  him  the   Quakers  meeting  house,    or 
an  independent  fortune.     No  Paine,  no  Congress,  no 
Independence  ;  Grant  calls  him  an  Infidel :  if  the  word 
means  any  thing,  it  must  be  one  person  differing  in  his 
belief  from  another.     Paine  was  a  real  Republican,  and 
Grant  a  Tory,  therefore  the  latter  was  an  infidel  to  the 
former,  which  was  the  case  in  religion.     Paine  was  a 
sincere  Deist ;  Grant,  I  believe,  an  hypocritical  Chris- 
tian.    But  to  return  to  ihe  history  of  Thorburn's  life, 
the  greater  part  of  which  consists  of  the  history  of  Scot- 
land, England,  and  London:  of  the  latter  he  gives  a 
poor  description,  in   particular  of  Westminster  Abbey 
and  St.  Paul's  Cathedral;  he  makes  a  boast  of  his  in- 
troduction   to   the  company  of  Lords  and  Ladies,  and 
the  kind  treatment  by  them,  and  their  astonishment  to 
see  such  a  man  of  such  wonderful  talents,  from  America  ; 
but  he  leaves  the  public  to  find  out  the  names  of  those 
noble  lords  and  ladies,  by  initials  ;  thus  the  reader  may 
attribute  the  initials  to  the  lords  and  ladies,  when  they 
may  be  those  of  the  butlers,  grooms,  gardeners,  cooks, 
and  chambermaids  ;  the  latter  characters  are  more  pro- 
bably the  real  persons  in  whose  company  he  was  ad- 
mitted. 
I  recollect  soon  after  Grant  had  furnished  the  old 


8 

« 

meeting  house  with  his  curiosities,  I  called  in  ;  we  shook 
hands;  he  said  "William,  do  you  recollect  what  the 
Scriptures  say."  I  answered  "  it  says  many  things  I  do 
not  recollect,  some  things  true,  and  others  not  true," 
He  said  that  Christ  said,  "my  house  was  a  house  of 
prayer,  but  you  have  made  it  a  den  of  thieves."  I  re- 
plied, ••  very  true  indeed,  if  you  count  yourself  among 
the  number."  The  company  present  laughed  at  the  re- 
ply— perhaps  they  thought  it  applicable  to  my  friend 
Grint  has  not  said  any  thing  about  Comstock's  cider,* 
*  This  cider  affair  is  comparatively  of  recent  date  ;  the  facts 
are  very  peculiar  and  well  established.  A  few  years  ago,  a 
gentleman  rented  a  cellar  of  Grant  Thorburn,  in  which  he  de- 
posited cider.  A  number  of  bottles  were  repeatedly  missing, 
and  the  clerk  in  whose  care  the  cellar  was,  being  suspected,  or 
fearing  that  he  should  be,  determined  to  watch  for  the  thief: 
he  had  already  ascertained  that  the  cider  was  taken  in  the  night 
or  on  Sundays,  and  by  somebody  in  possession  of  a  key  ;  for 
when  he  had  left  all  things  right  at  night,  he  found  in  the  mor- 
ning the  door  locked  and  all  safe,  with  the  exception  of  some 
few  bottles  which  had  mysteriously  disappeared.  W  ith  this 
clue,  he  resolved  to  remain  in  the  cellar  all  of  one  Saturday- 
night,  during  which  nothing  was  disturbed;  but  on  the  Sunday 
morning,  while  thecleikyet  remained  in  the  cellar,  Mr.  Grant 
Thorburn  entered  with  a  Key,  and  taking  up  several  bottles  of 
cider  was  about  to  decamp,  when  the  clerk  seized  him  with  the 
cider  in  his  possession,  and  in  the  cellar.  Grant,  fairly  caught, 
made  his  excuses,  and  attempted  to  influence  the  young  man 
whose  reputation  had  been  so  much  injured  by  this  secret  ab- 
duction of  property,  which  must  have  been  carried  on  for  a 
long  while  before  suspicion  could  have  been  aroused,  and  for 
some  time  after,  before  the  clerk  v/ould  resolve  on  so  unpleasant 
an  experiment  as  spending  a  night  and  a  Sunday  alone  in  a  ci- 
4t r  cellar,  A  reference  was  matte  to  the  police,  but  Grant  being 


in  either  of  his  books,  although  it  was  an  important 
truth.  Grant  pretends  to  be  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul  and 
John  Calvin,  and  likewise  to  believe  himself  to  be  one 
of  the  elect,  whose  good  works  will  not  save  them,  or 
their  bad  works  damn  them  ;  I  think  he  well  recollects 
the  account  of  Christ  and  his  Apostles  travelling  through 

well-known,  and  alledging  that  he  had  a  private  agreement  with 
the  owner  of  the  cider,  (then  in  the  country,)  by  which,  in  ad- 
dition to  rent,  he  was  to  receive  a  quantity  of  cider,  and  that  a 
key  was  given  to  him  with  permission  to  enter  the  cellar  at  his 
pleasure  ;  Grant  alledging  this,  proceedings  were  stayed,  and  a 
letter  written  to  Mr.  Comstock,  the  proprietor :  that  gentleman 
receiving  the  letter  and  noticing  also  the  remarks  in  some 
newspapers,  instantly  replied  through  the  press,  and  positively 
denied  any  such  agreement,  or  that  he  knew  that  Grant  had  a 
key ;  and  at  the  same  time  avowed  his  determination  to  prose- 
cute. Mr.  Comstock  soon  after  came  to  New- York  and  com- 
menced some  proceedings  against  Grant  Thorburn,  and  openly 
and  repeatedly  avowed  to  his  friends  and  in  public,  or  coffee- 
houses, what  he  had  published,  and  indeed  was  extremely  vio- 
lent on  the  subject;  while  Grant  could  never  show  any  document 
in  support  of  his  claims  :  he  indeed  admitted  the  facts,  and  pub- 
lished his  admission,  but  pleaded  the  existence  of  the  before  re- 
ferred too  engagement,  to  cover  his  taking  the  cider  in  the  se- 
cret and  furtive  manner  he  did.  The  affair  however  was 
nerer  brought  before  a  legal  tribunal ;  the  parties  arranged  the 
matter  privately  ;  Mr.Comstock  did  not  prosecute  Grant  Thor- 
burn for  theft,  nor  did  Grant  prosecute  Mr.  Comstock,  and  va- 
rious editors,  who  denounced  him  as  a  thief  caught  in  the  very 
act ;  and  as  Grant  stood  rather  fairer  in  the  world  than  did  Mr. 
Comstock  before  this  event,  various  opinions  are  entertained  ; 
but  the  facts  of  Grant  coming  slyly  into  the  cellar  on  a  Sun- 
day morning,  and  being  caught  there  in  the  act  of  taking  off 
cider  secretly,  are  admitted  truths. 


10 

a  farmer's  corn  field  on  a  Sabbath  day  and  plucking  the 
ears  of  corn, they  being  "a  Hungary,"  he  therefore  thought 
it  no  harm  to  take  a  little  cider  on  the  Sabbath,  himself 
being  "  a  dry."  At  the  time  he  and  myself  were  shop- 
mates  he  worked  in  a  little  back  shop,  I  wrought  for  a 
Mr.  Cleland  an  Ironmonger  in  Maiden  Lane,  al  the 
blacksmith's  work  and  doctoring  horses  ;  at  that  time 
Grant  bought  a  monkey  ;  after  a  while  he  thought  the 
monkey's  tail  too  long,  so  the  tail  was  cut  off,  and  the 
animal  died  on  account  of  the  barbarous  trep'tnent: 
Grant  had  a  coffin  made  for  him,  &  Jacko  laid  in  slate 
in  the  shop,  a  great  number  of  boys  came  daily  to  see 
Jacko;  the  time  was  appointed  for  the  funeral  ;  t'u^boys 
attended  as  mourners;  the  corpse,  was  carried  round 
the  streets  by  four  boys  on  two  white  clothes  ;  a  great 
number  following  after;  at  length  they  returned  with 
the  corpse,  and  Jacko  was  buried  in  the  yard,  to  the 
grief  of  Grant  and  the  boys  ;  Grant  makes  a  short  re- 
mark about  the  monkey  in  the  history  of  his  life. 

There  is  a  pride  in  the  heaitof  almost  every  English- 
man, that  he  does  not  like  his  poverty  should  be  known, 
1  knew  a  poor  man  in  the  town  where  1  was  born,  when 
he  went  to  a  public  house,  he  would  call  for  half  a  pint 
of  beer  in  a  quart  pot ;  he  said  to  be  poor  &  seem  poor, 
was  the  Devil,  I  myself  have  been  unfortunate  in  this 
country  and  am  a  poor  man,  but  Nature  gave  me  a  mind 
like  the  Rock  of  Gibralter;  I  am  now  almost  78  years 
of  age,  but  I  never  will,  give  up  endeavoring  to  obtain 
an  honest  living,  and  by  the  assistance  of  friends  I  shall 
never  want  bread.  But  as  to  the  Providence  that  Grant 
talks  of  I  know  nothing  of  it.  It  appears  to  me  this 
Providence  is  very  partial  in  bestowing  its  bounties;  it 


11 

has  given  my  friend  Grant  abundance,  more  then  he  will 
ever  want:  but  never  gives  poor  old  Carver  one  shilling. 

Doctor  Franklin  said,  God  took  care  of  those  that 
took  care  for  themselves. — But  it  is  not  in  the  power 
of  all  to  do  so.  We  are  all  in  a  chequred  state,  up  to 
day  down  tomorrow.  In  the  15  chapter  of  his  journal, 
he  calls  it  a  slander  on  New  York,  as  it  respects  the 
priests,  in  being  poorly  paid ;  the  ministers,  he  says, 
receive  only  from  one  to  three  thousand  dollars  per  an- 
num. I  think  they  are  well  paid  for  doing  worse  then 
nothing  they  make  fanatics,  and  superstitious  bigots. 

It  is  probable  my  old  sboptnate  might  think  there  was 
no  harm  in  his  bringing  me  the  second  time  into  the 
arena  of  the  public  papers  there  would  have  been  none 
had  he  not  stated  a  falsehood:  he  said  the  only  thing  in 
the  room  of  any  value  was  a  coffin  ;  if  so  I  must  be  poor 
indeed,  as  the  coffin  with  the  inscription,  plate  and  motto 
Memento  Mori  ;  never  cost  five  dollars,  it  being  made  of 
of  pine  wood  painted  white,  striped  black:  I  wish  no 
better  shroud  then  what  the  coffin  contains,  which  is  a 
large  quantity  of  old  newspapers;  I  thought  soon  to 
quit  this  place,  and  it  was  proper  to  provide  an  other. 

The  last  time  that  my  friend  Grant  called  to  see  me, 
he  said  all  creeds  were  a  delusion,  hut  hundreds  died 
happy  under  the  Christian  religion,  he  might  have  add- 
ed millions  have  died  miserable  through  persecution  for 
disbelieving  its  principles  and  dogmas.  The  same  cruel- 
ties would  be  inflicted  by  priests  and  fanatics  at  the  pre- 
sent day,  had  not  philosophy  and  the  press,  stopped  their 
mad  career.  The  two  great  champions  of  superstition 
were  persecutors, Calvin  got  Servetus  put  to  death  ;  Lu- 
ther said  the  Jews  should  be  exterminated,  and  their 
synagogues  razed  to  the  ground. 


12 

Were  the  public  to  believe  all  that  Grant  has  got 
written,  for  I  am  sure  that  he  never  wrote  either  of  the 
books;  and  should  any  person  doubt  my  assertion,  if 
they  will  call  on  me,  I  will  prove  to  their  satisfaction 
that  he  neither  did  or  could  write  them.  But  the  writer 
has  written  a  great  number  of  things  that  are  not  true. 
If  the  public  and  myself  could  believe  what  is  written 
in  the  books,  we  might  think  that  all  England  was  on 
tiptoe  to  behold  such  a  wonderful  character  as  the  ce- 
lebrated Grant Thorburn  from  America:  when  visiting 
the  Tower,  he  says,  there  was  more  shaking  of  hands 
for  ten  minutes  than   has  taken  place  there  since  the 
days  of  King  John  and  the  Magna  Charta,  or  the  golden 
days  of  Queen  Bess ;  first  came  the  hard   mailed  glove 
of  the  veteran  of  Waterloo,  then  the  soft  glove  of  the 
ladies  with  hands  as  white  and  delicate  as  used  to  be 
seen  in  the  Tower  in  the  days  of  Queen  Bess.     I  should 
think  Lord  Wellington  was  not  very  complaisant  by  not 
taking  off  his  glove,  when  shaking  hands  with  such  a 
person  as  the  seedsman  from  New  York.     I  should  wish 
to  know  how  Grant  could  discover  the  whiteness  of  the 
ladies  hands  with  their  gloves  on  them  :  but  we  are  told 
that  faith  is  the  <-/idenceof  thjngs  not  seen.     I  wonder 
that  Grant  makes  no  mention  of  his  seeing  the  Crown 
in  the  Tower,  an  object  which  all  lories  adore;  likewise 
he  says  nothing  of  the  wild  beasts  that  are  kept  there, 
although  he  represented  the  republicans  as  wild  beasts 
at  the  burning  of  Jay's  Treaty.     I  rather  wonder  that 
Grant  should  be  attached  to  a  King,  Church,  and  Priest 
Government,  after  being  excommunicated  for   shaking 
hands  with  the  immortal  Thomas  Paine;  but  he,  like 
other  superstitious  fools,  bows  and  trembles  before  kings 
and  priests,  more  than  before  God. 


13 

The  greatest  part  of  the  book  entitled—"  Men  and 
Manners  in  Britain,  is  .composed  of  extracts  from 
the  history  of  England  and  Scotland,  the  other  part  ia 
filled  up  with  frivolous  stories  and  lies,  dictated  by 
Grant  and  placed  there  by  the  writer:  p.  71;  he  says, 
the  churchyards  look  like  gardens ;  in  the  month  of  Ja- 
nuary, he  says,  I  saw  the  lauristinus,  the  rose,  the  stock 
and  the  wall-flower  in  full  bloom.  Well  done  Grant, 
Thomas  Paine  said  it  is  easier  to  tell  a  lie  than  to  vr ork 
a  miracle,  and  a  person  wishing  to  tell  a  lie,  should  tell 
a  good  big  one  at  once :  Grant's  is  a  thumper,  which 
every  body  knows  that  is  acquainted  with  the  climate 
of  England  and  Scotland.  Grant  not  being  satisfied  by 
villifying  Mr.  Paine  and  others,  but  he  must  attack  Miss 
Fanny  Wright,  a  Scotch  woman,  who  he  says  was  a 
disgrace  to  our  country:  the  truth  is,  Miss  Wright  was 
not  aided  by  thirty  or  forty  infidels,  neither  was  she  at- 
tended by  a  small  rabble,  but  thousands  of  the  first  la- 
dies and  gentlemen  in  the  city  attended  her  Lectures  ; 
likewise  many  philosophers,  and  those  who  had  the  best 
of  education  :  never  was  there  an  orator  that  received 
greater  applause:  she  possessed  a  large  fortune  and 
stood  in  need  of  no  assistance.  Will  my  old  shopmate 
never  leave  off  telling  and  printing  lies.  It  was  not  the 
rabble  or  the  ignorant  multitude  that  she  delivered  lec- 
tures to,  or  she  might  as  well  have  delivered  them  to 
Grant  Thorburn  and  his  monkey. 

Grant  goes  on  and  says,  the  Sabbath  in  New-York  is 
more  respected  than  in  London,  Liverpool,  or  Edin- 
burgh, and  as  a  proof  of  this  assertion,  I  will  state  that 
there  is  a  law  of  the  city  which  gives  each  church  the 
privilege  of  stopping  up  the  street  opposite  the  plaee  of 


14 

worship,  in  the  time  of  service,  by  fastening  an  iron 
chain  across  the  street ;  this  he  calls  a  decent  regula- 
tion,which  perhaps  no  city  in  Britain  can  boast  of:  this 
last  remark  of  Grant's,  like  many  others,  is  false.  There 
never  was  a  law  in  New-York  and  never  will  be, to  per- 
mit the  priests  to  barricade  the  public  streets  with  chains. 
I  recollect  some  years  ago,  the  mail  coach  was  stopped 
at  Trinity  Church  by  the  chains;  the  sexton  refused  to 
take  the  chains  down,  and  the  coachman  was  obliged  to 
drive  the  horses  thro'  them  ;  the  trustees  of  the  church 
threatened  to  prosecute  for  what  they  deemed  an  of- 
fence;  but  they  had  to  give  the  coachman  twenty-five 
dollars  that  he  should  not  prosecute  the  trustees.  I  my- 
self was  certain  there  was  no  law  to  authorise  the  priests 
to  block  up  the  public  high  way  :  about  15  or  16  years 
ago  I  wrote  a  remonstrance  against  that  high  handed 
power  of  despotism,  and  likewise  had  300  bills  posted 
round  the  city  at  my  own  expense  :  the  chains  are  down 
and  they  dare  not  replace  them.  It  was  only  a  combi- 
nation between  the  superstitious  members  of  the  then 
Corporation,  and  priests.  Some  Sundays  after  a  piece 
of  mine  appeared,  some  of  the  chains  were  doubly  lock- 
ed with  padlocks,  so  that  the  gilded  coaches  could  not 
be  brought  up  for  the  nobles  to  get  into  them. 

The  first  time  Grant  brought  me  into  the  arena  of 
the  public  papers,  I  saw  it  in  the  New-York  Gazette  ; 
I  carried  down  a  reply  ;  Mr.  Lang  who  is  a  real  gentle- 
man, possessed  of  humane  feelings,  said,  if  this  reply 
is  published  you  will  ruin  Grant  for  ever,  1  have  pub- 
lished things  for  you  that  was  never  contradicted,  and 
I  know  it  is  not  your  principle  or  feeling  to  ruin  him 
tht  public  will  believe  you,  I  will  send  for  him  and  ttll 


15 

him  the  consequence,  make  him  pay  for  the  trouble  and 
the  exposure  ;  Mr.  Lang  sent  for  him,  and  Grant  came 
to  see  me  the  next  morning  before  1  was  dressed  ;  we 
then  agreed  to  settle  the  affair  by  his  giving  me  a  sa- 
tisfactory remuneration  for  my  trouble. 

I  see  no  harm  in  Grant  telling  the  good  he  has  done 
to  his  fellow  creatures  in  distress  it  is  my  opinion  that 
the  only  thing  that  will  recommend  us  to  the  favour  of 
God  is  by  living  a  sober,  virtuous,  moral  life;  not  the 
sacrifice  of  the  innocent  person  called  his  son,  which 
would  be  an  act  of  injustice.  Grant  acted  the  part  of 
the  good  Samaritan,  by  attending  those  who  were  af- 
flicted with  the  yellow  fever.  1  believe  him  to  be  a 
philanthropist,  and  hope  that  his  good  deeds  will  over- 
balance his  bad  ones,  so  that  he  may  get  to  his  imagi- 
nary heaven. 

As  to  a  great  part  of  what  Grant  has  said  about  his 
discoursing  with  Mr.  Paine  at  my  house,  I  believe  not 
{o  be  true,  and  particularly  his  leaving  the  company  in 
that  abrupt  manner  in  the  evening,  taking  the  candle 
and  going  to  bed,  Mr.  Paine  was  too  well  acquainted 
with  polite  company  to  act  in  that  manner,  I  never  knew 
him  to  go  to  bed  without  my  going  up  before  him  with 
the  candle,  during  the  18  months  he  lived  with  me. 

I  always  believed  Grant  to  be  possessed  of  benevolent 
and  humane  principles,  1  once  said  to  himl  did  not  be- 
lieve that  he  believed  that  there  were  children  in  hell 
not  a  span  long, — he  replied  and  said  it  was  all  a  delu- 
sion. In  the  history  of  his  life  he  has  shown  his  hu- 
mane principles  and  feelings.  St  James  said,  show  me 
your  faith  by  your  works  :  faith  without  good  works  is 
dead,  there  is  no  merit  in  believing  nor  demerit  in  dig- 


16 

believing ;  both  are  founded  upon  evidence  for  and  a- 
gainst  any  principle  of  which  the  mind  can  take  cogni- 
zance, and  which  reason  must  determine.  1  find  that 
my  friend  Grant  is  of  the  opinion  of  Solomon,  he  said, 
'  Wherefore  1  perceive  that  there  is  nothing  belter  than 
that  a  man  should  rejoice  in  his  own  works,  for  that  is 
his  portion,  for  who  shall  bring  him  to  see  what  shall 
be  after  him.— Ecclesiastics,  Chap.  3.  v.  22.  We  are 
told  in  the  New  Testament,  let  not  your  left  hand  know 
what  your  right  hand  doeth.  Grant  preferred  the  re- 
mark of  Solomon  to  the  latter,  believing  that  no  one 
could  bring  him  to  see  his  green  house,  or  standing  in 
a  tub  a  fine  orange  tree  a  thousand  years  after.  Grant 
has  told  us  of  many  of  his  acts  of  benevolence,  which  1 
believe  are  true,  and  for  which  he  is  amply  repaid  in  his 
own  mind.  But  1  do  not  believe  God  gave  him  the  old 
Quaker  meeting  house  and  flower  pots  for  his  kindness, 
but  he  attributes  his  prosperity  to  an  unknown  Provi- 
dence ;  but  1  think  it  is  owing  to  his  putting  the  right 
nail  into  the  tool,  and  heading  of  it  well.  Dr.  Franklin 
said,  God  always  takes  care  of  those  who  take  care  of 
themselves:  but  this  we  cannot  always  do  for  want  of 
judgment  and  foresight. 

As  to  my  good  or  bad  fortune  through  life,  1  do  not 
attribute  it  to  Providence,  neither  do  1  believe  my  mis- 
fortune in  life  has  been  by  political  or  theological  opin- 
ions that  I  have  advocated  fifty  years;  but  by  placing 
confidence  in  my  eldest  son.  As  to  my  lecturing  in  the 
streets  on  any  subject,  it  is  a  down  right  falsehood  ;  few 
men  ever  worked  harder  than  myself  for  thirty  years — 
often  from  5  o'clock  in  the  morning  until  11  at  night, 
and  many  times  1  have  shod  four  horses  round  in  depth 


17 

of  winter  for  the  mail  stage,  before  daylight,  not  exclu- 
ding Sundays. 

1  could  have  mentioned  a  great  many  more  things 
where  Grant  was  mistaken,  but  he  acknowledges  that 
Thos.  Paine  never  gave  up  his  principles,  which  is  the 
truth.  Grant  says,  if  religion  is  a  delusion,  it  makes 
numbers  happy,  and  in  no  part  of  the  world  is  provision 
made  for  the  poor  where  the  Christian  religion  is  not 
believed  in.  Grant  must  be  little  acquainted  with  his- 
tory, or  he  would  not  have  said  that.  Jn  Constantino- 
ple there  are  90  hospitals  and  poor-houses,  and  1  could 
refer  him  to  many  other  countries  where  the  poor  are 
provided  for. 

Grant  tells  us  that  he  paid  his  creditors  to  a  cent:  this 
is  honesty  and  justice,  whether  Providence  or  his  own 
good  fortune  furnished  him  with  the  means  is  no  matter, 
but  1  hope  that  neither  Mr.  Providence,  fate,  or  chance, 
will  deprive  him  of  this  one  thing  needful ;  poverty  is 
the  only  devil  1  fear. 

1  should  have  said  nothing  on  religion,  but  Grant  said 
that  I  was  a  Baptist,  and  went  to  Gold  street  church.  1 
arn  no  baptist,  and  went  to  Gold  st.  church  upon  the 
same  principle  on  which  1  went  to  hear  John  Mason,  to 
hear  a  good  orator  from  Philadelphia  for  three  or  four 
times.-  1  never  was  a  bigot;  1  have  heard  Mr.  Noah  de- 
liver an  excellent  discourse  in  the  synagogue,  and  have 
heard  the  preachers  of  almost  all  the  different  secfs  of 
Christians,  and  1  would  go  with  the  same  freedom  to 
hear  a  Mahometan:  my  object  has  been  to  discover  truth 
among  the  numerous  conflicting  parties. 

1  should  not  have  introduced  any  thing  concerning 
politics  or  religion,  had  not  my  friend  Grant  referred  his 


18 

readers  to  the  French  Revolution,  as  being  the  cause  of 
so  much  blood  being  shed,  being  brought  on  as  he  says 
by  Republicans  and  Infidels,  which  is  not  true,  The 
cause  was,  the  people  groaning  under  the  oppression  of 
government  and  priests.  1  wish  Grant  to  read  the  his- 
tory of  king  and  priestcraft,  and  compare  the  numbers 
murdered  by  fanatics  professing  the  Christian  religion 
with  those  of  all  governments,  and  he  will  find  the  ba- 
lance against  kings  and  Priests  to  be  enormous. 
Grant  is  greatly  mistaken  in  many  particulars  ;  he  says 
I  took  my  children  to  Long  Island  and  the  Jerseys  on 
Sundays  instead  of  going  to  church.  This  I  positively 
deny;  I  never  took  my  children  on  Long  Island  but 
once,  and  that  was  not  on  a  Sunday,  and  never  did  I 
take  them  to  the  Jersies  at  all  ;  if  I  had  done  so,  it  would 
be  no  crime.  Thomas  Paine  said  everyday  was  the 
Lord's  day,  and  that  he  showed  his  grand  works  on  all 
days,  and  I  hold  all  days  alike. 

If  the  public  and  myself  could  believe  all  that  Grant 
has  said  concerning  his  reception  in  England,  and 
Scotland,  we  should  suppose  that  great  part  of  both 
countries  spent  great  part  of  their  time  to  congratulate 
him  on  his  visiting  of  them,  and  likewise  it  must  occupy 
a  great  part  of  his  time  to  read  the  numerous  cards  pre- 
sented to  him,  and  particularly  those  sent  by  the  ladies; 
it  is  probable  he,  like  myself,  considers  them  the  only 
angels  God  ever  made.  I  think  it  a  fortunate  circum- 
stance that  John  Knox's  stone  pulpit  was  in  existence 
when  he  was  there,  and  he  had  the  honour  to  mount 
thatold  rostrum,  but  we  are  not  told  whether  or  not  he 


jSSSi         ture  in  it  to  P1^61^^??'^^  (large 
audience,  or  whether  he  was  dressed  in  the  Romish 


19 

drees,  in  a  black  gown,  band  and  cassock;  at  all  events 
I  believe  he  is  not  so  much  of  a  fanatic  or  fool  as  to  be- 
come a  martyr,  which  would  not  prove  his  religion  to 
be  true.  I  do  not  find  that  Grant  returns  thanks  to  his 
Providence  for  preserving  that  old  relick  of  superstition 
to  the  present  time  :  Grant  says  I  told  him  at  my  house 
that  the  methodists  were  kinder  to  me  than  the  infidels, 
this  I  deny:  I  told  him  that  superstition  had  not  eradicated 
the  humane  feelings  of  all  its  votaries  :  that  some  of  them 
had  visited  me,  and  made  me  presents,  they  said  they 
knew  my  principles,  but  that  I  was  a  sober  honest  man, 
as  they  were  informed  by  their  friends,  and  ought  not 
to  be  suffering  for  want  of  assistance. 

If  myself  and  the  reader  can  believe  all  that  Grant  has 
said  of  his  being  introduced  into  the  company  of  such  a 
variety  of  noble  lords,  dukes,  and  ladies.  I  think  he 
lo&t  a  good  chance  by  not  going  to  pay  his  address  to  the 
king,  surely  such  a  trifling  sum  as  twenty  pounds  for 
equipment,  was  hardly  worth  a  thought,  whencompar- 
with  the  honor  of  kissing  his  majesties  hand,  when  it  is, 
probable  he  might  have  been  dubbed  a  noble  lord  of  the 
bed  chamber,  a  knight  of  the  garter,  or  groom  of  the 
stool,  it  would  ha\e  been  a  great  curiosity  to  have  seen 
the  dwarf  before  the  Goliah  of  England,  with  his  sword: 
his  majesty  would  have  had  no  cause  to  fear  of  the  sword 
being  weilded  againt  him ;  Grant  loves  kings  and  priests, 
too  well  to  harm  them.  1  must  drop  the  subject,  I  am 
tired  myself,  and  shall  tire  the  reader.  Nature  must 
change  her  laws  before  I  can  become  tory,  and  abandon 
Republican  principles,  that  I  have  ardently  contended 
for  50  years  :  a  few  more  rising  and  setting  suns,  my 
eyes  will  be  closed  in  the  cold  and  icy  arms  of  death. 


20 

rejoicing  in  those  liberal   principles  that  have  been  a 
consolation  to  me  almost  through  life. 

Before  my  friend  Grant  publishes  another  work,  I 
wish  him  to  be  better  acquainted  with  history,  and  that 
those  he  employs  would  write  the  truth  and  nothing  but 
the  truth. 

I  was  surprised  to  find  Grant  attended  the  Theatre, 
knowing  that  he  had  been  turned  out  of  Church  twice  : 
once  for  shaking  hands  with  T.  Paine,  and  once  for  an 
other  offence  :  how  many  infidels  he  shook  hands  with 
at  the  Theatre  he  does  not  inform  us. 

When  I  first  read  the  life  of  Grant  Thorburn,  I  made 
this  remark  and  wrote  it  on  the  cover  of  his  book  ;  I 
have  read  this  life  of  Grant  Thorburn,  I  presume  a  great 
part  of  which  it  is  composed  has  no  more  connection 
with  his  life  than  mine,  or  the  Pope  of  Rome,  to  wit,  the 
corresponding  letters  between  ThomasPaine  and  myself, 
and  those  letters  I  have  cut  out  of  his  book  ;  these  letters 
were  first  printed  by  Cheetham  without  my  consent  for 
base  purposes.after  he  became  a  toryand  a  hypocritical 
turncoat,  like  Grant  Thourburn,  who  has  now  re-print- 
ed them  for  the  same  purpose  :  they  were  written  by 
Paine  and  me  in  anger.  Mr.Paine  had  boarded  with  me 
without  any  regular  agreement,  and  we  quarelled  about 
the  bill,  what  has  happened  a  thousand  times  to  other 
people;  he  wrote  angrily  and  I  angrily  replied.  But 
the  affair  was  amicably  settled  by  Walter  Morton  and 
John  Fellows  the  latter  is  still  living  1  think  some  things 
Paine  said  of  me  were  not  in  earnest,  and  I  answered  in 
anger  ;  the  letters  should  have  been  burnt:  but  Cheet- 
harn  said  many  things  of  Paine  that  were  not  true,  after 


21 

he  turned  tory.*  1  told  him  1  believed  that  he  had  his 
hand  dossed  with  British  gold,  Mi.  Charles  Christian 
was  present,  he  said  to  Cheetham  that  is  a  bold  attack 
of  Carver's  in  your  own  house:  he  replied  and  said  1 
know  Carver,  he  will  contradict  a  Judge  on  the  bench 
if  he  thinks  him  not  right :  but  he  did  not  deny  the  charge. 
When  Paine  was  on  his  death  bed,  I  wrote  him  the  fol- 
lowing letter,  this  shows  what  opinion  I  had  of  him,  1 
think  he  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  that  ever  lived. 

DEAR  SIR:— 

I  have  heard  that  you  are  much  indisposed  in  health, 
and  that  your  mind,  at  present,  is  not  reconciled  to  me : 
be  that  as  it  may,  1  can  assure  you  that  on  my  part,  1 
bear  no  ill-will,  but  still  remain  your  sincere  well-wisher; 
and  am  still  a  zealous  supporter  and  defender  of  the 
principles  that  you  have  advocated,  believing  they  are 
founded  on  immortal  truth  and  justice  ;  therefore  1  think 
it  a  pity  that  you  or  myself  should  depart  this  life  with 
envy  in  our  hearts  against  each  other — and  1  firmly  be- 
lieve that  no  difference  would  have  taken  place  between 
us,  had  not  some  of  those  of  your  pretended  friends  en- 
deavoured to  have  caused  a  separation  of  friendship  be- 
tween us. 

1,  sir,  want  nothing  of  you  or  from  you,  but  only  that 
the  ignorant  and  superstitious  herd  may  not  have  it  in 
their  power  to  exclaim  and  say,  that  Thomas  Paine,  or 
Carver,  died  without  a  reconciliation  to  each  other.  1 
have  often  told  my  friends,  if  1  were  on  my  dying  bed, 
1  should  send  for  you,  hoping  that  all  our  difference 
might  be  buried  in  oblivion  before  our  bodies  were  buri- 
ed in  the  grave,as  I  hope  that  my  dying  pillow  may  not 
be  planted  with  thorn's :  1  consider  that  time  with  me 
is  short,  and  perhaps  shorter  with  you.  If  I  never  should 

*Cheetham  edited  a  paper  but  deserted  his  Democratic  prin- 
ciples, and  Paine  attacked  him  with  much  force:  Cheetham 
took  his  revenge  by  writing  his  life. 


22 

see  you  again  in  this  world,  I  wish  you  all  the  consolation 
that  your  great  mind  is  capable  of  enjoying,  and  that 
you  may  resign  yourself  with  full  confidence  on  your 
Maker,  and  leave  a  noble  testimony  to  the  world  of  the 
independency  of  your  mind  and  honesty  of  your  heart; 
and  this,  my  friend,  will  produce  to  you  more  comfort 
than  all  the  prayers  of  the  priests  in  the  Christian  world. 
Your's  in  friendship, 
WM.   CARVER. 

Alexander  Pope  said  an  honest  man  is  the  noblest 
work  of  God.  Grant  may  not  be  of  the  same  opinion, 
but  I  believe  to  be  immortal  truth,  I  have  ever  through 
life  followed  the  principle  of  honesty  as  much  as  possi- 
ble; If  I  had  the  opportunity  to  day  to  rob  a  person  of 
ten  thousand  dollars  without  being  discovered,  1  would 
not,  for  I  should  then  throughout  life  be  an  unhappy 
man,  knowing  that  I  had  committed  an  unjust  act  upon 
a  fellow  being.  I  left  my  native  country  with  honor, 
owing  no  person  one  cent,  bringing  with  me  three  let- 
ters of  recomendation  to  HenryCruger  Esq.  of  this  city, 
informing  him  that  I  was  a  good  mechanic  and  horse 
farrier,  the  letters  were  signed  by  the  two  presidents  of 
the  banks,  their  two  banks  at  Lewes,  one  was  signed  by 
a  Mr.  Brigs  an  American  gentleman  from  Washington, 
he  resided  with  one  of  the  presidents  of  the  banks.  Mr. 
Cruger  treated  me  with  the  greatest  kindness  and  friend- 
ship ;  he  had  set  in  Parliament  for  Bristol  for  14  years. 


APPENDIX. 

BY  A  FRIENp   TO   TRUTH  AND  HONESTY. 

The  great  object  of  Grant  Thorburn  appears  to  be  to 
stand  out  as  an  example  of  Divine  Providence  as  a  rc^ 


23 

cipient  of  blessings  for  his  peculiar  faith  and  obedience  ; 
and  to  exhibit  Carver  as  an  object  of  Divine  wrath  for 
his  unbelief  and  neglect  of  popular  worship.  Meaning 
the  direct  agency  of  God  over  the  fortunes  of  men,  and 
reversing  <wen  the  language  of  Scripture,  which  sayg, 
the  "  sun  shines  on  the  just  and  the  unjust." 

The  position  which  Grant  takes  is  incorrect, even  if  he 
really  believes  himself  peculiarly  acceptable  to  God  : 
but  if  a  hypocrite  and  conscious  that  his  godliness  is  put 
onforgain;  then  his  assumption  of  a  peculiar  Providence 
in  his  favor  is  gross  impiety  and  blasphemy  with  a  mask. 

Riches  are  the  reward  of  honest  industry,  aided  by 
cunning,  subserviency,  and  especially  quackery  :  the 
greatest  fortunes  havebe«n  made  in  the  shortest  time  by 
quacks:  and  those  fortunes  which  have  been  accumulated 
slowly  by  savings,  are  generally  held  by  mean  men  un- 
able to  enjoy  their  hoard:  fortunes  to  these  latter  is  not 
a  blessing  ;  they  are  miserable  with  it;  and  irritated 
with  little  losses  :  their  only  enjoyment  is  in  the  act  of 
getting  this  fortune  and  if  Providence  has  any  thing  to 
do  with  them,  it  uses  them  as  prudent  men  do  granneries, 
to  be  let  out  at  a  future  period  for  the  benefit  of  others  : 
ana  to  suppose  that  God  is  a  co-partner  with  industrious 
quacks,  knaves,  or  mean  sycophants,  is  a  thought  worthy 
only  of  a  fool,  or  of  a  hypocrite. 

The  causes  of  poveity  are  various,  as  accidents,  indo- 
lence, or  too  great  an  independence  of  character;  it  is  too 
caused  by  want  of  judgement ;  by  too  high  an  opinion 
of  others.who  may  deceive  you  ;  by  a  scrupulous  regard 
to  honour,  which  others  taking  advantage  of  step  in 
between  you  :  it  is  also  caused  by  misplaced  confidence. 


24 

Carver  dates  his  poverty  to  the  improper  conduct  of  a 
son, in  whom  he  had  placed  confidence  :  to  what  Grant's 
riches  are  to  be  referred  we  shall  notdeteimine  :  except 
to  assert  that  they  are  not  the  reward  of  virtue:  or  he 
would  have  been  made  a  better  man  or  more  dignified, 
did  God  design  him  for  an  example  of  Providence. 


FINIS. 


VALE,  PRINTER,  No.  15  ANN  STREET. 


YB  78256 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


2  ?  1951 


llBRARY  U 

NOV8    195 


D£C    i  1977 


EEC.  CIR.OK  U  77 


LD  21-95m-ll,'50(2877sl6)476 


